Priyanka Gandhi primes Ajay Rai to take on Modi in Varanasi

The meeting took place at the 12, Tughlaq Lane residence of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi which has been turned into a war room of sorts for the Lok Sabha poll campaign and where Priyanka has been a frequent visitor.

"Priyankaji ne kaha ki aap jam kar ladiye. Unhone apna personal mobile number bhi diya aur kaha ki aapko jo bhi zaroorat hogi woh aap turant bolen. Woh aapko muhaiyya karayi jaayegi. (Priyankaji told me to fight wholeheartedly. She gave me her personal mobile number and told me not to hesitate to ask for anything that I may need and said I will be given every help)," Rai quoted Priyanka as telling him on Monday evening just after the Congress leadership had settled on the MLA to take on Modi in Varanasi.

The meeting took place at the 12, Tughlaq Lane residence of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi which has been turned into a war room of sorts for the Lok Sabha poll campaign and where Priyanka has been a frequent visitor.

Rai who was officially declared the candidate on Tuesday also had a meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi but it was,a sedate affair. "Sonia Ji ne chunav main jeetne ke liye shubhkaamanaayen di aur kaha ki main kshetra men logon ki sewa karoon. (Sonia Ji wished me well for the election and said that I should serve the people in the constituency", Rai told TOI about the meeting he had with the Congress president at 10, Janpath.

Priyanka's exhortation is significant because they reinforce the growing estimate in party circles about the expanding interest of the Gandhi sibling who had so far maintained that she would limit herself to family constituencies of Rae Bareli and Amethi. Her meeting with Rai came against the backdrop of the speculation Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi triggered last week by implying that Rajiv Gandhi viewed his daughter as cut out for poltiics.

The meeting also attests to the significance that Congress's top family attaches to Varanasi fight. In fact, Congress brass's conversations with Rai coincided with the growing assessment in political circles that party leaders could be working in tandem with Samajwadi Party and BSP to hem in Modi in Varanasi.

There are also indications that BJP's rivals were furiously working on local strongman Mukhtar Ansari to get him to withdraw from the contest.

In 2009, Ansari contested on a BSP ticket and finished a close second to BJP's Murli Manohar Joshi. He has declared his intent to take the field again, this time as the candidate of Qami Ekta Dal - the outfit he launched after breaking with Mayawati. With his 'dabang'image , he enjoys considerable clout among Muslims in the region. Modi will be faced with the real prospect of Muslim voters consolidating behind one of his "secular" opponents, possibly the Congress nominee, if Ansari leaves the ring.

The selection of Rai has been influenced by the cold-blooded calculation that he being a local will put up a better fight against 'outsider 'Modi. Rai was a BJP MLA for almost a decade and switched to Congress five years ago when he was passed over for Murli Manohar Joshi for the Varanasi seat.

He is a Bhumihar : a resoruceful community with a sizable presence in the Lok Sabha constituency that has helped him record successive wins in UP polls from Kulasla segment( rechristened Pindra after delimination) . The constituency used to be a bastion of CPI stalwart Udal until Rai snatched it for BJP. That he held on to the seat despite switching parties is seen as evidence of his influence in his community.

However, Congress tacticians expect him to also get support from Brahmins, another important community in the area, by tapping into any sense of slight over Joshi being asked to make way for Modi. The chances of Rai getting a majority of Muslim votes will increase, should Congress's calculation come to pass. Of course, his success among Brahmins can hurt the prospects of BJP's PM candidate who is banking on the support of the important category.

Interestingly, the coincidence of SP and BSP fielding Vaishya candidates , Kailash Chaurasia and Vijay Jayaswal, and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, another important contestant, belonging to the same fraternity have raised doubts whether the trading castes will vote overwhelmingly for BJP's PM candidate.